Lion's Share: Summer Reading

THE HEAD OF SCHOOL WRITES
Summer Reading

It's never too soon to start setting aside books for the summer, so let me tell you about Sharon Creech’s wonderful children’s picture book, A Fine, Fine School where the exuberant principal is so enamored with the school, he makes classes on weekends and through the summer until everyone agrees that you can have a wonderful school but you need independent time to follow personal dreams as well. We, too, have a fine, fine school but I both recognize advantages of and relish the opportunity for reflection and personal projects. But you need to promise me that your projects will include reading.

The research about summer is strikingly clear. Children who read, visit museums, watch the news, talk about the world, amuse themselves with self-initiated projects, and have playdates that involve conventions of socialization and conversation build their literacy skills over break and come back in September more accomplished than they left in June. Children who do not have those advantages precipitously lose gains they have made during the school year. Interestingly, in general the gap gets greater for literacy but not for math, since so few children and families do recreational mathematics during the summer.

We, of course, offer summer school for children who will benefit from extra time, attention and support. In the Middle Division we require summer reading, although we ask for a relatively minimal threshold. While our children love being in school, they love being on vacation, too. The promise of unstructured time, lack of requirements, increased playdates, time with family and no homework is pretty irresistible.

While you can certainly indulge in the increased freedom, we know several things. The way that children learn to be better readers is to read. Magazines, newspapers, fiction, informational texts – it does not matter. And we know that children who love reading will come back to school in September having made significant gains. Reading instruction matters. Practice matters even more.

It is not enough to pledge to encourage reading during the summer. You need an explicit plan. That plan should be quantifiable (number of books, number of pages, kinds of reading experiences) and it needs to begin on June 19th. Good intentions are rarely realized around the end of August. Read a book with your child, find one that is related to a movie, buy a magazine subscription instead of a video game, go to a book sale and stock up, and/or arrange for book trades with good friends.

Nothing will serve a child better in the future than being a proficient, active reader. Take out a calendar, mark down milestones, get a library card, record progress, and celebrate accomplishments.

Yes, there are iPads, Kindles, and laptops. It doesn’t matter how the text comes to you. What matters is that there is each child has an ambitious reading goal this summer. If you are quietly reading side by side with your child, you too will be a beneficiary. Enjoy. In September, come show us the list of what you have read so that we can both celebrate your accomplishments and explicitly point out the increasing competencies that are the result of that activity. We are working hard to close the achievement gap. It is increasingly clear that summer months are a critical variable and we can’t do it alone.

Till next time, Annette


TALK OF THE TOWN
The School's Debate Team Wins!

Grade 8 student Michael Pusic writes: This past weekend our debate team won the first elimination tournament of the Big Apple Debate League. Despite the disadvantage of having only two people on our team instead of the normal three, team PCx (Taina Cruz and Michael Pusic) came in first place. Our other team competing, PMx (Aysha Pettigrew and Thea Moerman) came in 7th place. Overall The School placed very well in the tournament and this is due in part to our curriculum, which challenges the way we view society and encourages us to look at both sides of an argument as well as stay open-minded. Our school’s debate team is a fantastic opportunity to develop your public speaking skills and stay up to date with current events. Not only is it basically an extension of our curriculum but it is also taught by some of the best and brightest of Columbia University’s debate team. Teachers are all very involved and the program is designed to challenge young minds. (You can see how persuasive a young man Michael is! - Ed.)

YOUNG SCIENTIST ALERT
Family-Friendly Science Goes
City-wide with World Science Festival

Parent scientist Zsuzsa Marka writes: From June 2-6, the 2010 World Science Festival takes science out of the laboratory and into the streets, theaters, museums, and public halls of New York City through 40 unique and inspiring programs. For the complete list of program – many of them are free and considered as family events – please visit www.worldsciencefestival.com.

Myself and Szabolcs Marka, astrophysicists at Columbia and parents at The School, are among many taking major part in the organization of free astronomy exhibit that will take place in Broad Street Ballroom (41 Broad Street) in downtown 10AM-8PM, June 2-6. The exhibit focuses on a new, unconventional method of astronomy, the science behind Einstein's predictions, and how the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) searches for gravitational waves: the new messengers of astronomy. The exhibit is designed for all ages and there will be plenty of hands-on activities and games, including an interactive laser interferometer and a black hole-hunting game.

We encourage our school community to have weekend filled with fun science at the Festival! (What a great follow-up to the Science Inquiry Expo!- Ed.)